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Yesterday, Vice President Biden made mini-news by telling CNN he'll announce next summer whether he'll make a third run for the top job: “There may be reasons I don't run," he said, "but there's no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run." Of course, nearly everyone else can think of one teeny-tiny obvious reason why he might want to think twice: a certain fellow senior citizen who's already got half of America's super PACs raising gazillions for her. There's also those pesky early polls: The Washington Post recently found Biden's support among Dems to be 12 percent— not so terrible, except that Hillary Clinton tallied 73 percent. But Biden swears he'll base his call on ... well, let's let him explain, which is always more enjoyable: “ For me the decision to run, or not to run, is going to be determined by me, as to whether I am the best qualified perso n to focus on the two things I’ve spent my whole life on: giving ordinary people a fighting change to make it, and a sound...

As we put-down, put-upon, lovable-losing liberals have been learning for decades now, if you can't win— even in your own party —at least you can revel in reminders of your moral and intellectual superiority. Republicans, bless their hearts, are ever more happy to oblige. On Thursday , as you may have heard, governor-turned-Fox News guitar hero Mike Huckabee, revving up for another run at the White House ( he's slimming down, people, watch out! ) , graced us with a whole new concept of women's liberation: "If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it," Huckabee told the RNC . Entirely unpredictable liberal reaction? For shame—and yee-haw! Here's Michael Tomasky: "This is what he said—in essence, that birth control,...

Victor Juhasz This piece is the first in our Solid South series. You can read Abby Rapoport's Texas reporting here , and Sue Sturgis and Chris Kromm on North Carolina here , and Jamelle Bouie on Virginia here . T he final rally of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign took place on symbolically charged ground: the rolling fields of Manassas, site of the first major battle of the Civil War. It was the last stop on an election eve spent entirely in the South: Jacksonville, Charlotte, and finally Northern Virginia. In the autumn chill, an estimated 90,000 people spread out across the county fairgrounds and waited for hours to cheer a new president—and a new South. By this point, Virginians knew Obama well. In February, he had beaten Hillary Clinton 2 to 1 in the state’s Democratic primary, a blow to her floundering bid. After clinching the nomination, he’d kicked off his general-election campaign in rural Virginia and been a frequent visitor since. Bucking conventional wisdom, Obama’...

*/ John Ritter L ast November 7, a syndicated cartoon made the rounds in progressive circles. Drawn by Signe Wilkinson, it showed a battered, bruised, patched-up Uncle Sam defiantly flexing his biceps and flashing the dazed grin of a fighter who’d survived a vicious knockdown and prevailed in 15 rounds. The caption, “Democracy Wins,” became a popular meme amid the liberal euphoria that broke out on election night. President Barack Obama had been re-elected, Karl Rove had been embarrassed on national television, and the Sheldon Adelsons and National Rifle Associations of the world had thrown hundreds of millions of dollars down the toilet. Voter suppression had not kept blacks and Latinos from the polls. Citizens United had not done its worst. Democracy had been tried and tested, and emerged banged up but miraculously intact. Liberals had earned their moment of giddiness. But the assumption that “democracy won” because Obama won and Democrats carried the U.S. Senate is flat wrong...

Eight years is a long time in politics, but you may remember that way back in 2004, Republicans considered John Kerry a wimpy, flip-flopping elitist who had faked his war injuries and betrayed America by coming back from Vietnam and criticizing the war. But today Barack Obama nominated Kerry to be secretary of State, just as one Republican after another begged him to. In contrast, the possibility that Chuck Hagel, once considered among the more conservative Republicans in the Senate (his lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union was a solid 84), might be nominated to be secretary of Defense has the GOP so outraged they have mounted a coordinated campaign to discredit Hagel as an anti-Semite who is also anti-gay (hey, whatever's handy). So what gives? The answer can be found in that old movie tag line: This time, it's personal. And also next time, and the time after that. You see, Barack Obama wanted his good friend Susan Rice to be Secretary of State, so she had to be...